1970 Deep Dive: John Lennon’s “Across the Universe,” Gregg Allman, and Songs That Flopped but Became Classics

Professor of Rock · May 2, 2026 · 27m

Today, we put one of rock’s greatest years, 1970, under the microscope and explore songs that we all know and love but failed as hits. There’s a story about Gregg Allman, who was so excited to lay down a song that came into his head, he got high and broke into a closed recording studio in the middle of the night. But he was struggling to find that one lyric to finish it, and it was his roadie who gave him the perfect lyric. But did he do right by him and give him any royalties for it? We’ll find out. Plus John Lennon, who was annoyed by his wife and made that annoyance into the classic song…